Sixty Years' War

The Sixty Years' War (1754–1814) was a military struggle for control of the Great Lakes region in America, encompassing a number of wars over several generations. The term Sixty Years' War is used by academic historians to provide a framework for viewing this era as a whole. David Skaggs defines the Sixty Years' War in six phases:

1. French and Indian War (1754–1763)

   Canadians view this war as the American theater of the Seven Years' War, whereas Americans view it as an isolated American conflict with no bearing on European conflicts. Some scholars interpret this war as part of a greater imperial struggle between the British Empire and France; most historians view it as a conflict between the colonies of British America and those of New France, each supported by various Indian tribes with some assistance from the mother country. Both sides sought control of the Ohio Country and Great Lakes region, known in New France as the "upper country" (the pays d'en haut). Indians of the pays d'en haut had longstanding trade relations with the French and generally fought alongside the French. The Iroquois Confederacy attempted to remain neutral in the conflict, except for the Mohawks who fought as British allies. British conquest of New France marked the end of French colonial power in the region and the establishment of British rule in Canada.

2. Pontiac's War (1763–1765)

   American Indian allies of the defeated French renewed the struggle against the British victors, eventually leading to a negotiated truce.

3. Lord Dunmore's War (1774)

   The expansion of colonial Virginia into the Ohio Country sparked a war with Ohio Indians, primarily Shawnees and Mingos, forcing them to cede their hunting ground south of the Ohio River (Kentucky) to Virginia.

4. Western theater of the American Revolutionary War (1775–1783)

   The Royal Proclamation of 1763 prohibited British colonials from settling the lands acquired from France at the conclusion of the French and Indian War, but this caused resentment among colonists and is often cited as one of the causes of the American Revolutionary War. The war spilled onto the frontier, with British commanders in Canada working with American Indian allies to provide a strategic diversion from the primary battles in the east. Many conflicts in this western theater would harden the animosity between the native nations and the United States, but with their losses in the war, Great Britain ceded the Old Northwest, home of many of Britain's Indian allies, to the United States.

5. Northwest Indian War (1785–1795)

   A large confederation of American Indians resisted American expansion into the Old Northwest. The United States won the Battle of Fallen Timbers after numerous defeats and gained control of most of Ohio.

6. War of 1812 (1812–1814)

   A number of American Indians under the leadership of Tecumseh continued to resist American hegemony and expansion in the Northwest, suffering a defeat in the Battle of Tippecanoe in 1811. The United States declared war on Great Britain in 1812, and the British once again turned to American Indians to provide manpower for their frontier war effort. This included the Battle of Fort Dearborn. The war between the United States and British Canada ended as a stalemate, establishing the Great Lakes as a permanent boundary between the two nations. After this struggle, Indians in the region no longer had European allies in the struggle against American expansion.

References

• Skaggs, David Curtis and Larry L. Nelson, eds. The Sixty Years' War for the Great Lakes, 1754–1814. East Lansing: Michigan State University Press, 2001.
• Tanner, Helen Hornbeck, ed. Atlas of Great Lakes Indian History. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1987.
• Trask, Kerry A. Black Hawk: The Battle for the Heart of America. New York: Henry Holt and Company, 2006.
• White, Richard. The Middle Ground: Indians, Empires, and Republics in the Great Lakes Region, 1650–1815. Cambridge, England: University of Cambridge Press, 1991.